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Tall el-Hammam sits in the northeast quadrant of the Dead Sea, in an area known as the Kikkar, or the “disc of Jordan.” It is an area lush with farmland, water, and natural beauty.

Geographically, it is east of Jericho, at about the same level above the sea. To this day, it is one of the most important agricultural areas of Jordan, providing many fruit and vegetable crops for Jordan and for export.

As amazing as it may sound, Tall el-Hammam may also be the location of the ancient city of Sodom.

According to archeologist, Dr. Steven Collins, this site fits perfectly with the geographical profile outlined in Genesis 13-19.

How Dr. Collins arrived at this conclusion involves years of research, digs, and textual research with many colleagues, including Dr. Peter Briggs. Drs. Collins and Briggs developed a means to determine if an ancient text is a “true narrative” through a scientific methodology called “criterial screening.”

The finding? Genesis is reliable for geographical profiles, and therefore can be used to locate sites.

With this bit of knowledge, Dr. Collins set out on a course of discovery.

“When I first had the idea that the traditional site of Sodom (in the southern region of the Dead Sea) was wrong (based upon the geographical indicators), I began to think through the text, coming to conclusion that it was northeast of the Dead Sea.”

After a 250-page research paper, hours of research—in the U.S., Israel, and Jordan— Collins concluded that the site of Tall el-Hammam was the ��?one.’

“I came to this conclusion based upon its geographical location and the biblical text. In the Bible, Sodom was mentioned first in order; therefore it must have been the largest and most prominent city in the area. We find that Scripture usually orders cities by prominence and size. With that bit of knowledge we choose the largest site.”

“As a matter of fact,” Collins continued, “Tall el-Hammam was the largest site by a huge margin.”

Under the auspice of the current dig, Tall el-Hammam’s general area is 40 hectares (roughly 100 acres), which is huge by ancient Bronze Age standards.

With the current dig well under way, the findings have been staggering.

“Not only do we have the right place geographically speaking, but it falls within the right time frame (the Bronze Age), and it was destroyed during the time of Abraham (the Middle Bronze Age). When you add in the pottery, architecture (it was a fortified city), and the chronological consistency of the region to the biblical text, it is a match made in heaven, so to speak,” Collins beams as he shares this with me.

“To make it even more intriguing,” he continues, “there is great mystery concerning this site, and all of its associated sites. For some reason there is what I call a “historical hole or LB Gap” regarding the site. Meaning, after this cluster of towns was destroyed during Abraham’s time, the area was not re-occupied until much, much later; later than the sites in the regions surrounding this particular cluster.”

“It must have been seen as a taboo site of some kind. Something terrible must have happened there that caused people to stay away for so many centuries.”

I then ask Dr. Collins for some evidence.

“Well, to start with, the Tall el-Hammam site has 25 geographical indicators that align it with the description in Genesis. Compare this with something well known—like Jerusalem—that has only 16. Other sites have only 5 or 6. So, this site has many times more indicators than any other Old Testament site. That is truly amazing.”

“Second, our findings—pottery, architecture, and destruction layers—fit the timeframe profile. Meaning, we should expect to find items, like what we are finding, from the Middle Bronze period. This is exactly what we are uncovering.”

“Lastly, we have secured internationally recognized experts to review our findings. One such person is Dr. Robert Mullins, and then there are our colleagues from the Department of Antiquities in Jordan. Dr. Mullins is an expert in Bronze Age pottery, and there are many others as well. My ceramic expertise also covers the Bronze Age. Their conclusions on the matter reflect that our findings are correct. Once again, this is incredible.”

“Though we are still digging and uncovering a plethora of material and artifacts, and much research still needs to be conducted, I feel that the evidence for this being the ancient city of Sodom is increasing by the day.”

“As a matter of fact, even some critics of the Bible are giving this site some attention. There is a host of web activity—both scholarly and downright weird—that has been spawned from this discovery. It is a wonderful time to be in archeology! I must confess that I am both humbled and excited to be a part of something as significant as this.”

Public Order official’s colleagues kick student ministry leader, issue more death threats.

JAKARTA, September 18 (Compass Direct News) – A Public Order official’s colleagues kicked Charles Hutahaean, chairman of the Indonesian Christian Students’ Movement (GMKI) in Jakarta, in the stomach last week and threatened to kill other GMKI staff members.

The Public Order official, Crisman Siregar, threatened to stab Hutahaean with a bayonet in the confrontation between him and his colleagues and the GMKI leader on Sept. 9. Previously Siregar had warned Hutahaean to “be careful with your life.”

Volunteer Public Order officials normally mediate local conflicts, among other community functions, but in this case have sided with a private company in a land dispute with GMKI. Land granted to the church was sold to a business venture, the Kencana Indotama Persada (KIP) Co., without the consent of GMKI, and construction workers have already partly demolished an old GMKI office building on the site.

GMKI now shares a newer office building with its parent ministry, the Alliance of Indonesian Churches (PGI). When KIP construction workers built a wall separating the new building from the old, GMKI students demolished it, sparking two violent attacks by Public Order officials on Aug. 26 and 28.

As GMKI staff members on Sept. 9 gathered to discuss these issues, two carloads of Public Order officials drove up and parked outside. Six men entered the premises and began tearing down banners erected inside the GMKI fence. The banners, which faced onto a busy road, protested the sale of the disputed land and accused Public Order officials of “masterminding” the August attacks.

When Hutahaen and other staff members tried to stop them, Siregar drew out a bayonet and threatened to stab the pastor. Following Siregar’s lead, the other officials threatened to kill GMKI members. They also kicked desks and chairs in the office building, causing minor damage.

GMKI staff members immediately reported the incident to the police, who arrived shortly after the attackers had left. Police officers, however, said it would be difficult to press charges since Siregar had not actually used the bayonet.

It was two weeks earlier, following the attacks on GMKI’s office, that Siregar had warned Hutahaean to “be careful with your life.” (See Compass Direct News, “Land Dispute Leads to Attacks on Christian Hub in Indonesia,” September 3.)

Compass sources said Public Order officials would likely benefit financially from protecting KIP’s business interests.

Mysterious Appropriation

The disputed property is a large piece of land originally granted by the Dutch colonial government to the Vereneging Christian School (VCS) Foundation. The VCS then gave the land to the Christian School Association, which in turn passed it on to a branch of its own association, the Christian Education Foundation (YBPK).

Although occupied by many Christian ministries and associations, including the Christian University of Indonesia and the Indonesia Bible Institute, sources said the land belonged to YBPK.

Under the terms of the land grant, the land could not legally be sold to business entities, according to GMKI lawyer Nikson Lalu. In August 2006, however, a board member of YBPK, acting independently of the board, sold a small plot of land to KIP. An old office belonging to GMKI was still standing on the plot of land, adjacent to a newer building shared by GMKI and PGI.

Compass sources noted that a gas station and business offices had replaced other ministry offices on the granted land. It was not clear, however, how the businesses had appropriated the land from YBPK.

Given the state of the world’s financial situation at the moment you would probably think that there was little hope of a turnaround anytime soon – yet I’m prepared to go out on a limb and say that an economic recovery for Australia is just around the corner.

I’m no economist and I don’t pretend to know a great deal about financial matters on a global scale, yet I do believe that a turnaround is coming reasonably quickly for Australia. I really see no reason for that not happening soon. Sure, things still look pretty grim around the world, but things here really aren’t as bad as elsewhere and the panic in Australia is somewhat ill-founded I believe.

Perhaps a good tip at the moment would be to invest in real estate and the like at the moment – rather than in shares and banks. Banks rip you off anyway! I just won a dispute with a bank over fees and charges after threatening to go to the industry ombudsman (or whoever it might be).